was a renowned

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

amateur photographer of rural life around the area where he lived in

Akita is a Japanese name and may refer to: Places * 8182 Akita, a main-belt asteroid * Akita Castle, a Nara period fortified settlement in Akita, Japan * Akita Domain, also known as Kubota Domain, feudal domain in Edo period Japan * Akita, Kumamoto, ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Biography

Chiba was born in Kakunodate, Akita on 19 October 1917, and two years later moved to

Yokote is a city located in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 89,574 in 34,240 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Yokote is located in southeast c ...

, Akita, an area where he would remain. After finishing high school in 1932, he started work in a kimono shop. In 1935 he bought a Rokuoh Baby Pearl camera and started photographing the rural area where he lived, particularly its everyday life, winning prizes. Immediately after the war Chiba's photographs appeared in the contests pages of ''

Camera A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...

'' and other magazines, and he became a central figure in the photographic culture of Akita (a part of Japan that would attract

Ihei Kimura was a Japanese photographer, known for his portrayal of Tokyo and Akita Prefecture. Life and work Born on 12 December 1901 in Shitaya-ku (now Taitō-ku), Tokyo, Kimura started taking photographs when very young but his interest intensified when ...

Hiroshi Hamaya was a Japanese photographer active from 1935 to 1999.Mihashi Sumiyo (), "Hamaya Hiroshi", in ''Nihon shashinka jiten'' () / ''328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers'' (Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000; ), p.254. In Japanese only, despite the additional En ...

and other photographers). From 1952 Chiba freelanced as an Akita-based photojournalist in his free time, but after half a year's hospitalization he closed his kimono shop and opened a shop in Yokote selling photographic supplies. From around this time Chiba concentrated on photographically documenting the history of the area. Chiba was hospitalized in October 1965 and died on 29 December 1965. In May of the following year, friends helped organize an exhibition of his posthumous works in Fuji Photo Salon, Tokyo. In 1992 his works were displayed prominently within an exhibition held by the

Miyagi Museum of Art opened in Sendai, Japan, in 1981. The collection has as its primary focus works associated with Miyagi Prefecture and the Tōhoku region more generally, from the Meiji period to the present day, and also includes paintings by Wassily Kandinsky a ...

of postwar photography in Tōhoku. The first booklength collection of Chiba's works came over thirty years after his death, in a slim volume of the series

Nihon no Shashinka Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

that serves as an anthology.See comments by Ōhashi () in ''Shashinshū o yomu 2,'' p.207.

Bibliography

*''Chiba Teisuke isakushū'' (). N.p.: Chiba Teisuke Isakushū Kankōkai, 1966. A booklet of Chiba's late works. * ''Chiba Teisuke'' ().

24. Tokyo: Iwanami, 1998. .

Related works

*''Nihon kindai shashin no seiritsu to tenkai'' () / ''The Founding and Development of Modern Photography in Japan.'' Tokyo: Tokyo Museum of Photography, 1995.

Notes

References

Matsumoto Norihiko is a Japanese writer on photography, and photographer. Born in Onomichi, Hiroshima, on 1 January 1936, Matsumoto graduated from Nihon University in 1958. He started to work for the publishing company while still a student, but went freelance ...

(), ed. ''Nihon no bijutsukan to shashin korekushon'' (, Japan's art galleries and photography collections). Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2002. . * ''Nihon no shashin: Uchinaru katachi, sotonaru katachi 1: Torai kara 1945 made'' () / ''Japanese Photography: Form In/Out 1: From Its Introduction to 1945.'' Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1996. Exhibition catalogue. A potted biography of Chiba appears on p. 124. Text and captions are in Japanese and English (but Chiba isn't shown or mentioned); biographies in Japanese only. * ''Nihon no shashinka'' () / ''Biographic Dictionary of Japanese Photography.'' Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2005. . Pp. 261–2. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese. * Sekiji Kazuko (). "Chiba Teisuke" (). ''Nihon shashinka jiten'' () / ''328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers.'' Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. . P.215. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese. * ''Shashinshū o yomu 2: Besuto 338 kanzen gaido'' (, Reading photobooks 2: A complete guide to the best 338). Tokyo: Metarōgu, 2000. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Chiba, Teisuke Japanese photographers Artists from Akita Prefecture 1917 births 1965 deaths